Modernity, ethics and religious education in contemporary Britain

Abstract

This article seeks to engage with the contention that, given the dilemmas of the self purportedly raised by these aspects of modernity, teachers of religious education need, ethically as well as professionally, to urgently revise their often traditionalist view of society, of children and of appropriate pedagogy for their subject. The aim of such revision would not be to abolish religious education from the British state school curriculum but, rather, to liberate it. In so doing it is hoped that the teaching of religions in state educational settings can be ethically de‐ and then re‐constructed so that the organisation of its teaching and learning is more consonant with its contemporary social and political setting.

Keywords:

• religious education
• ethics of authenticity
• late modernity
• reflexive self